Fishy's Game Reviews - Super Mario 3D Land

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The plot

Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach

Seriously, you have to even ask?

The Graphics

Wow, you cant really tell in these pictures because screenshots dont really do well with handheld games but this looks beautiful, some levels look better than even Mario Galaxy 2

I've only played the 3DS hands on at events before last week and it left a lot to be desired but I have to say the 3D in this works surprisingly well.

There are two different 3D settings, either having everything sink into the screen so its like you are looking at a diorama or the other way is to have stuff pop out at you. I had the latter. You can toggle between the two using the dpad

The bottom screen doesn't take you away from the gameplay either, only showing how many of the Star coins you have collected in the level and which spare power up you have

Gameplay

It's like they've taken all the best bits from the 2d and 3d games and merged them together to make a bloody good game. There's your standard green levels, underground levels, water levels, ghost levels, sand levels and more, and somehow Nintendo have made it feel ALL original again. That is an amazing achievement after 26 years of Mario

The Tanooki costume returns from Super Mario Bros 3 on the N.E.S. but is essentially the Raccoon costume in form as it does not turn into stone. I can understand why Nintendo did this though, as the originaly Raccoon costume was just a tail and ears added to Mario's hat and wouldnt show up very well

Don't worry, play it for a while and the proper version might pop up

If you die about 5 times in a row you get a special white version of the suit that has infinite star power for that level. This mostly appeared for me on some of the later Castle levels. Although its a throw up between not picking it up and to keep the challenge in the game or using this suit because you're dying to see the next level and having it being a cake walk

There is also a new addition with the Boomerang Suit, which shockingly, allows you to throw boomerangs. If you jump while it come back to you it goes behind you and spins back towards yourself. If you keep jumping essentially you have an infinite boomerang

There are also some really cool effects with the 3d where if you can reach a certain place or stand on a perspective changing switch you can see what is really going on.I'll let this picture better explain it to you

Best Weapon/Vehicle/Power-Up?

One of my favourite new additions to this is the propeller block

It's not a power up as such, so you can only use it in certain levels but when you do it's tons of fun

You are essentially wearing a helicopter, and if you push jump when in midair it sets off and launches you into the air. This leads to some really great platforming trying to land on really small surfaces or trying to time the second jump to reach special places

Final Thoughts

You know you're going to get a quality game that uses the best capabilities of the system when you play a Mario game

There are a lot of levels to play and loads of replayability trying to find all of the Star coins

This is an essential purchase if you have a 3DS and I think this is a game worth buying a 3DS for

For the next game Nintendo should bring back the Frog Suit from Mario 3, that would be AWESOME!!!